June 2013 Isle of Jersey

After our trip to Switzerland, we crossed France and took the ferry from St. Malo to the Isle of Jersey. Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands. Although it is only 14 miles from France, it has been under English/Norman influence since 1066. Everyone speaks English, but all towns and streets have French names.  The Germans invaded and occupied the Channels Islands for five years during WWII.

The purpose of our visit was to join the International Caravanning Association (ICA) group and hike the 50 mile trail around the island. Our group consisted of 5 UK couples and us. They were camping in their motor homes or travel trailers. Since we did not have wheels, we camped in a rented tent.

Before we arrived, we had been monitoring the weather in Jersey. It looked like we would be hiking in the rain every day. Somehow we lucked out and completed the 7 days of hiking without any rain. The best part of the hike was having a Jersey soft serve ice cream at the end of the day, by far the best soft serve we have ever had. We had a few free days to explore the island, so we visited their zoo, gardens and two museums. We ran out of time before we got to explore their castles and other interesting sites.

Out of our group of 12, all 11 hikers completed the 50 mile circuit. Old castles, German fortifications, long sandy beaches, and rugged cliffs provided interesting diversions during the hike.

We returned to Paris for our flight home, but due to a strike by the air traffic controllers, our flight left 2 hours late. We missed our connection in Iceland, so our trip home was delayed 24 hours (we were very grateful to be delayed in Iceland instead of France!). We went to the Blue Lagoon on our extra travel day.

Sand Castle

Mont Orgueil Castle

Bring your kid to work day at the zoo

Our group pushing up hill

Our trail

David at Grosnez Castle

Pat at Smares Manor Gardens

The Devil

A bit too horny

Pat with her hot chocolate

Our rental tent

The ICA gang

Don talking to Elves

May 2013 Switzerland Part 1 of 3

The first leg of our journey got interesting when our pilot took us on a 10 minute roller-coaster ride before landing in Iceland. Our next adventure was at the Paris Airport (see Why We Hate Paris in the attachment). Tired and grouchy, we started our drive to Switzerland.

We set out to explore many of the major and not-so major cities in Switzerland. We usually got a hotel for two nights and visited a major city first and then anything else that looked interesting in the area. We had hotels in or near Baden, Basel, Zurich, Interlaken and Geneva. Our favorite location was Interlaken because it was so scenic and there was so much to do in the area (not just castles and museums). We didn’t spend a lot of time in Luzern, but it is a beautiful city. If you like unusual museums try Fribourg.

We took a train to the highest (over 11,000 ft) train station in Europe. We picked a clear day, but by the time we got to the top, two hours later, the clouds had moved in. The last hour of the trip was inside a tunnel through the Eiger and Monch mountains.  You may have seen this on “The Amazing Race”. Despite the lack of a view, there were exhibits to see inside. We were glad we took the trip.

Alps near Interlaken

View from Eiger

Roman Theater at Augusta Raurica

Swiss Fighting Cow

The Guardian Angel at Zurich Train Station

Luzern

Village near Luzern

Train trip to Jungfraujoch

"Top of Europe"

Travel in style

May 2013 Switzerland Part 2 of 3

Our timeshare was on the opposite side of the mountain from Interlaken, a 1.5 hour drive around the mountain. Instead we drove our car directly onto a railroad car and 10 minutes later we were on the other side of the mountain.

The first half of our trip, the weather was usually cloudy but we had little rain. When we got to the timeshare (at 4000 feet) it snowed several times and we had some rainy days. We really appreciated clear periods when we could actually see the mountains.

We arrived at our timeshare too late on Saturday to get groceries.  Unfortunately all the stores were closed on Sunday and Monday (one of 4 holidays in May!). We survived on junk food and expensive restaurants for a couple of days.  

We had been advised to get a rental car with a Motorway sticker on it, but this was not possible in France. When we crossed into Switzerland, we were asked if we wanted to buy the $52 sticker, but we declined. We thought this would give us a better chance to see the real countryside.  This worked out initially, even though it took several times longer to get anywhere. As we moved closer to the Alps, it became evident that our back road strategy was not going to work if we were going to take day trips from the timeshare. So we bought the pass and enjoyed a two hour delay on the motorway the next day.

Ballenberg Open Air Museum

Brown Bears of Bern

Bern

What Hell is really like

Niki de Saint Phelle's art

Thun

Thun

Falls at Lauterbrunnen

May 2013 Switzerland Part 3 of 3

We did finally get to the chocolate and cheese factories. We liked the chocolate tour better because at the end of the tour you could sample dozens of different varieties of chocolate. It was an all-you-can-eat chocolate buffet! We also toured the Chateau-de Chillon, the most famous attraction on Lake Geneva. Afterwards we had cheese fondue for lunch. The Red Cross Museum in Geneva was our last stop in Switzerland.

We drove back through France and stopped at a few historical sites near Avalon. We returned our car at CDG and took a high speed train to St Malo. We walked their walled city and had crepes at one of their many creperies. The next morning we took the 90 minute ferry to the Isle of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, for our ICA walking trip around the island.

Leukerbad

Chateau de Chillon

Chateau de Bazoche, France

St Malo, France

The End